In the last month of the year, a large amount of war intelligence from overseas poured into the US Congress and the cabinet in China.

The Thirty Years' War in Europe, which had already killed the red eye, finally took a dramatic turn. In early November, the Swedish army, under the command of Commander-in-Chief Tolstensen, inflicted heavy losses on the main forces of the Holy Roman Empire at the Second Battle of Bridenfeld, and there were no more decent Imperial opponents on the road to Vienna.

The Swedish army's flourishing appearance finally aroused the high vigilance and infinite jealousy of Denmark, and in order to prevent Sweden from becoming a dominant family, Denmark finally declared war on Sweden. The Swedish army, which had won a series of battles in the heart of Germany, was unimpressed by the reminder of the Chinese and American diplomats who had been knocking on the side of Guò Emden a few months earlier, and could not have imagined that Denmark, a Protestant country that had once been on the same front, would suddenly stab itself in the back.

Denmark's sudden backlash was a few months later than history, but it was also more well prepared, and the Danish army, which had been accumulating for many years, directly copied the Swedish army's rear supply line and captured Mecklenburg, and then the Danish navy also successfully attacked and burned several military port bases of the Swedish navy on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The commander-in-chief of the Swedish army, Tolstensen, had not had time to enjoy the fruits of the victory, and angrily withdrew his troops directly from Bohemia, intending to fight Denmark to the death, which also gave a respite to the defeat of the Holy Roman Empire army in the past year.

With the full support of the Prince of Orange, the regent of the Netherlands, the Dutch Army finally invaded the Spanish Netherlands, besieging the fortress of Breda, which had been lost many years earlier, with the intention of destroying it.

The main Spanish army, which was fighting in France, once again failed to attack Paris. Although the old French fox Richelieu has died, several famous French generals did not give the Spaniards any opportunity on the battlefield.

The splendid 24-pounder guns of the Spanish army finally met their biggest opponent, and the fortress built by the French engineers once again proved the impassable ravines of the modern era of thermal weapons, and the Spanish legions were bloodied and finally had to abandon the attack. And at sea, the French Navy, which spent a lot of money to purchase warships from Huamei. It also defeated the Spanish home navy, whose scenery has long since faded.

The pace of the English Civil War under the influence of butterfly wings was also slightly different, and the military operations of both the royal army and the parliamentary army were half a beat slower. The Battle of Mount Eji, which should have taken place in history, changed in time, space, troops, and command of the battle.

Although Charles I was angry because of the various "disobedience to the king" of the National Assembly, he still hesitated for a long time on the issue of the royal driver's conquest against the parliamentary army. At the beginning of November, the Wang Dang army, which had finally completed the assembly in Nottingham, waited for half a month before it really began to move south.

The bitter cold north of England is sparsely populated and economically weak. It is simply not possible to support a long war. Judging from the books, the royal army fighting for Charles I at this time was really not of any grade, only more than 4,000 people, far weaker than the army controlled by the parliamentary party. The only advantage is that most of the soldiers of Wang Dang's army are loyal professional soldiers, and their combat effectiveness is several grades stronger.

To everyone's surprise, the Parliamentary Army faced by the royal army seemed to be even less prepared, or until now, the Parliamentary army had not been truly mentally prepared to fight the king. When the 20,000 parliamentarian army led by the Earl of Essex set off from London and arrived at Northampton. Instead of attacking with superior forces, they lined up in an attempt to force Charles I to abandon the military confrontation and negotiate peace.

Almost every day, reinforcements from the feudal nobility came from all over the country, and when the time came to the end of November. The royal army under the command of Charles I has exceeded 7,000 people, and the momentum has suddenly increased, and at this time, the parliamentary army is still squabbling over whether to actually use the sword against the king.

In the words of the Earl of Manchester, a conservative nobleman and a famous general of the Parliamentary Army, "We can defeat the king ninety-nine times." He was still a king, and after him, his children and grandchildren were still kings. And the king only needs to defeat us once. We will all be hanged, and our children will be slaves. ”

In this tangled atmosphere, the Battle of Northampton, which had never been seen in history, broke out at the end of November. The warlike Prince Rupert was no longer under Charles I, and Charles I did not make a strategic roundabout. The Parliamentarian army had a strange disagreement in battle, and several generals refused to carry out the battle orders, and directly led their troops to retreat, leaving only the main force of less than 10,000 men under the Earl of Essex and the royal army collided with each other.

Some of the Royal Army's troops, who had fought with Cromwell in Ireland and the Spanish Legion, continued to line up the flintlock line with ease and launched a wall advance salvo against the Earl of Essex's troops.

The advance of more than 3,000 flintlock musketeers instantly broke the first line of troops lined up by the Earl of Essex, and then 1,000 royal cavalry launched a surprise attack from the flank, and the Parliamentarians were routed less than an hour after the battle.

The rout of the parliamentary army made Charles I ecstatic, and it also woke up the parliamentarian magnates in London. In order to prevent the king from entering London, the National Assembly launched a general mobilization in London, and in just two days, more than 5,000 craftsmen, apprentices or ordinary citizens joined the army and then marched north with all kinds of unreliable weapons.

When Charles I's several thousand royal troops conquered Oxford, the regrouped Parliamentarian army at Brentford, a few miles north of London, exceeded 20,000 men, and the battle suddenly woke Charles I to his senses. Charles I left the army to his henchmen and withdrew to Oxford for the winter, while he himself returned to his hometown in Yorkshire, preparing to contact more royal nobles to fight again the following year.

The first leg of the English Civil War ended with the victory of Charles I.

At this point, the Thirty Years' War in Europe has been completely scorched, the enemy and our fronts are staggered and chaotic, and the whole of Western Europe cannot stop. It was another global cataclysm year during the Xiaoice Age in the 17th century, from southwest France to northern Italy, from the North Sea to Iberia, food prices were so high that people couldn't look at it, and all parts of Europe were starving, like hell on earth.

Huamei also exported cereals to Western European countries this season in record quantities and prices. Landed primary wholesale prices for Huamei grains at the ports of Nantes, France and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The average rose to $120 and $130 per tonne, respectively.

Evenly amortizing all costs, taxes, and expenditures, whether it is the state-owned grain and oil import and export company under the Huamei Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery and Animal Husbandry Group, or a private trading company, the net profit of at least $70 per ton of grain exported to Europe can be regarded as a lot of money. As the tide rises, the meat is left in the soup, and the purchase price of grain in China and the United States has also increased slightly, and the grain underwritten to the state by individual private farmer families can also earn a net income of at least $15 per tonne.

In order to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, in November alone, more than 10,000 tons of grain were shipped to Europe from Huamei mainland and Nanshan overseas. The cumulative total of cereal exports to Europe that year exceeded 60,000 tons, double the number exported in previous years. In the summer and autumn of that year, the total output of cereals and grains in Huamei was only 240,000 tons. The country's grain export tariff revenue hit a record $800,000, the richest harvest on record.

……

Tuesday, December 16, 1642.

At noon, the first Chinese American High School Symphony Concert was held at the Manchester City Opera House, consisting of Manchester City No. 1 High School, Ivy League Private High School and Union City No. 1 High School. These three middle schools are all key elite high schools in China and the United States, and in order to support the performance, not only many important figures in the Chinese Congress and the Cabinet were present, but also diplomatic envoys from European countries in Manchester City received invitations to the concert.

Plagiarized the classic repertoire of later generations for many years. Finally, today, a large-scale multi-movement symphony that is completely original from this era is about to be performed in the ornately renovated concert hall. According to the personal evaluation of Cheng Daxiong, who visited the rehearsal, the symphony is not unforgettable, but it is also full of flavor. It is one of the artifacts of the national image.

Yan Xiaosong was also present with his wife today, and Caterina was wearing a decent dress that was displayed on this occasion at this time, and was meeting with another lady on the side to whisper to each other, and from time to time she smiled and waved to a corner of the concert hall.

Yan Aizhen, the daughter of the Yan family. As a violinist, I participated in this recital, and now I am holding my instrument in a serious way, sitting in the middle of hundreds of students in the performance area. Waiting for the instructions of the commander-in-chief.

The applause slowly dissipated, and hundreds of cellos and violins mixed with a few clarinets and pianos played a rhythmic and elegant melody with a prologue in the style of a salon.

The cello plucks the strings to a neatly bouncing rhythm, like the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. The violin plays the main chord rhythm, like a beautiful ocean-going fleet marching with the wind. The piano accompaniment fills the gaps between the rhythms, like silver coins settled in the hands of merchants, constantly colliding in free fall.

The elegant tune attracted many adult audiences to involuntarily beat the beat on their laps, and they felt the urge to dance on the spot. Katerina looked at her daughter's serious appearance and smiled and squinted, not paying attention to her husband Yan Xiaosong beside her who was distracted by other thoughts.

Yan Xiaosong looked away from the middle school band and looked back slightly at the seats of European diplomats behind him. Holland, Emden, Sweden, Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire, France, Spain, Portugal, England, nine middle-aged uncles with different heights, shortness, fat and thinness, all looked numb, anxious, contemplative, and more absent-minded.

After the prologue, the style of the song gradually became high-pitched and tense from relaxed and elegant, and the whole tune began to rise continuously under the powerful wave of the commander-in-chief's arm.

In the sound of magnificent musical notes, it seems that the picture scroll of the Thirty Years' War in Europe at this time is rippling. The wood-like violin bow shafts rose and fell neatly from side to side, like bayonets on a forest-like flintlock pistol, and the beating of the big drum on the key syllables was more like the earth-shattering roar of a heavy artillery.

Baron Diego, a Spanish diplomat in the recital hall, had closed his eyes in anxiety, while the Dutch diplomat, who was only a seat away from him, held up a finger a little obsessively, shaking his head to the music, looking very proud.

As the wave of violins passed, the tuba, trumpet, clarinet and piccolo opened a new chapter accompanied by the beat of the drums, and more and more instruments began to join the playing sequence, tight and strong rhythms, like an army pressing step by step.

Denmark's stabbing in the back against Sweden and the first victory of the English royal army were aptly blended into this brief climax of excitement......

I don't know when, the whole performance ended, and when the applause rang out, Yan Xiaosong came back from the haze. At this time, his wife Caterina beside him couldn't help but stand up. Clapping his hands vigorously in the direction of his daughter.

The student musicians stood up and saluted, the adults nodded frequently, and the European diplomats showed relieved expressions, as if their mood had risen and fallen several times with the momentum of the symphony recital.

"Mr. Yan!" A young man with a government office badge squeezed through the passage on one side, looking a little nervous, "Your Excellency, please go to the first conference hall of the government building immediately to convene a meeting of the National Security Council. ”

"Did Lao Wu encounter something tricky, otherwise he wouldn't have held an emergency meeting at this time." Yan Xiaosong took out his pocket watch and looked at it, and found that it was already two o'clock in the afternoon.

Looking in other directions, I found that several police officers were also surrounding the two speakers of the National Assembly. A government worker was also saying something in front of the two of them.

……

After processing the last few intelligence documents from the American Azores Porterís, it was only to find that it was past lunchtime. Before he had time to put on his coat and go to the restaurant to pad his stomach, another urgent letter from the Asian Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was placed on the desk of Premier Wu Yuanyi.

"Good! Well done! ”

After reading a few lines, Wu Yuanyi threw his pen to the ground in excitement, so frightened that the female secretary in front of the door thought that something bad had happened and quickly retreated.

"Contact the two speakers and the National Security Council office immediately, an urgent meeting needs to be called!" After walking back and forth in the room several times, Wu Yuanyi calmed down and waved his hand at the female secretary who was probing his brain outside the office.

An hour later. Qi Jianjun, Zhang Mingcheng, Yan Xiaosong, and others who had just finished a public event hurried to the conference hall of the National Security Council, and a special meeting on "a certain great news" was held. And Su Zining, as the secretary general of the National Security Council. He was absent because he had to recuperate at home because he had a severe cold.

It took less than two days from getting the information, to confirming it, to sending it back to Manchester City. The efficiency of the Asia Intelligence Division was at an all-time high, and when Fan Li's emergency intelligence message was released, the members of the National Security Council who attended the meeting applauded happily.

Far East Luzon. Thousands of ethnic Chinese militia had already started in the middle of the night two days earlier, and the Luzon War of Independence, led by Li Guozhu, had taken Governor Coquilla by surprise at the very beginning. Now, Manila's port fortress has fallen into the hands of the Chinese rebels, who are turning their guns to storm Manila's main city fortress.

Leaving aside the adequacy of other preparations, the Luzon Independence Army is now almost incapable of capturing any Spanish colonial fortress armed to the teeth except for a dozen light cannons, and this kind of amateur-level military operation, if it is not possible to seize the port fortress in advance and obtain the fortress heavy artillery, you can imagine how much blood will be paid under the heavy artillery of the Spaniards.

Once the port fortress in Manila was mastered, the military operations would be much smoother. For Huamei, it was to completely isolate the Spaniards in Luzon at the right time.

……

At night, a little snow fell, and the newly decorated garden chandeliers in the Su family manor were lit one after another, and the white snowflakes and white lights were intertwined with each other, quietly sprinkled on the evergreen pine and cypress branches.

“…… Denmark unexpectedly declared war on Sweden, and Frederick V, the supreme leader of the Marquis of Emden, made fiercely worded statements in an interview with our correspondents, which our commentators believe may further complicate the war in Europe......"

“…… In view of the complexity of the English Civil War, the Marine Battalion stationed in Penn State and the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Bison Brigade of the Army's Foreign Legion entered Hampton Harbor last week to begin protecting the local Chinese American diaspora and related assets, and maintaining law and order. Both houses of Congress are about to vote on the resolution of the Legislature of the Autonomous Territory of Virginia declaring its incorporation into our country. ”

“…… The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a note to France about the military positions and personnel illegally remaining in the territory of the Florida Peninsula and is closely following the further development of the situation. In accordance with the Treaty of Spanish Portuguese, China has legally purchased the territory of the Florida Peninsula from the Kingdom of Spain, and hopes that France will respect the territorial and sovereign integrity of the United States of America......"

“…… The situation in the Far East remained unoptimistic, with the defeat of the Ming Imperial Army on the border in the first half of the year and the siege of the inland town of Kaifeng by rebels, making another barbaric Tatar invasion a reality. Including King Lu, many members of the Ming royal family in Yanzhou, Shandong Province, were killed. Our commentators believe that such a barbaric act will undoubtedly have an immeasurable impact on China's commercial interests in the Far East and on the domestic economy. It is also an extreme provocation to the current world civilized order......"

“…… Japan's maritime embargo and trade blockade show no signs of relaxing, the Japanese market has shrunk sharply, and commercial orders from England and the Dutch East India Company have begun to decline slowly. The Ministry of Commerce of the Chinese government is highly concerned about the Japanese shogunate's crude policy of restricting free trade, and the Department of Far Eastern Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is conducting long-term consultations with relevant trading partners on this matter......"

Slowly putting down the newspaper in his hand and rubbing his eyes, Su Zining raised his head and turned his gaze out the window.

The night outside the floor-to-ceiling window is dispersed by the lights of the garden, and under the fine snow, you can see a partial study on the opposite side of the garden. It was the house on the other side of the main building of the manor. is now the eldest daughter Su Fangqi's private living room. The daughter has grown up and finally asks for her own private space, both in family life and socializing.

"When you're sick, you still hold yourself in the study all day reading the newspaper? If I hadn't stopped you today, I guess you would have been called to an emergency meeting by them again! You're going to have two days off this time anyway! The door opened, Yuan Xinyi walked in with a large cup of Chinese medicine, and took away all the newspapers in Su Zining's hand.

"Well, I heard that the Luzon side has started to do it, and it is relatively smooth, I guess Lao Wu will be busy for a while. Wait for Luzon to get it done. Next is the problem on the Florida side, and there is an even more troublesome Da Ming in the future. Su Zining awkwardly took the medicine handed by his wife.

"Since the beginning of the year, you have been manipulating the media to create a momentum and exaggerate the situation outside. Even a fool can see that the country is brewing something in the east again. Hey, it's been more than 20 years, and there aren't many days to live in. Yuan Xinyi sighed and touched her husband's forehead. These days, the students in the class are discussing the East Side. The children came back to see you today on leave, and they talked about this for dinner......"

"Huh. The children have grown up...... Look at them, don't they look like we had a secret meeting in a small estate on the outskirts of Lisbon? At that time, you were also a girl, plus me and Yan Xiaosong. Su Zining pointed to the figure printed on a floor-to-ceiling window outside the window, and took the medicine from his wife with a smile.

Seeing her husband talk about her trip to Europe more than 20 years ago, the corners of Yuan Xinyi's mouth also flashed a smile, and she just leaned lightly against her husband, and began to look at the windows and figures in the distance.

……

"It's ridiculous!" Su Fangqi finally couldn't help but stand up and walked around the study, her pretty brows furrowed tightly, while Su Fangwei and Yan Shuming, who were sitting opposite her, seemed to know that the other party would react like this, and they were exchanging glances with each other.

"Eldest sister, aren't we discussing with you, if you don't support us, then it's even more useless." Under the encouraging gaze of his friend and classmates, Su Fangwei swallowed his saliva and began to make up excuses.

"Don't even think about it! You're only in your second year of college, so you're planning to take a leave of absence to join the army?! Go to the Far East to fight the Tatars, can you find a more absurd reason ?! Su Fangqi's eyebrows were raised, and he slapped his palm on the piano beside him, and the sound of the piano scared his younger brother Su Fangwei.

"Kiki, starting this year, the Ministry of Defense has new regulations, allowing college students to apply for the short-term preparatory class for officers at West Point, and the school also allows them to continue their studies after the end of their service and add credits. We've already had people in our department sign up this fall. Yan Shuming saw that his girlfriend naturally had no confidence in his ** girlfriend, so he also stood up and explained.

"Is that for you? You have to think clearly, once you join the army, you will have to leave the campus for many years, and your studies will be delayed. If Mom and Dad knew you had these thoughts, it would be useful for you to tell me this?! Su Fangqi turned around and sat down angrily, staring at Yan Shuming's eyes, eager to dig into the other party's heart, so as to know which tendon was wrong with the other party.

"I heard that Rep. Lu's eldest son, Lu Yuzhou, just graduated from college this year, and volunteered to join the Eastern Brigade of the National Defense Force, and he is directly a second lieutenant military medical officer! How prestigious, much harder than our qualifications......" Yan Shuming's eyes flashed with essence, and he looked very excited, "Fang Wei and I both think that it is boring to be trapped in school every day, a manly man, he has made contributions to the country, and his life is not in vain!" ”

"Eldest sister, we have grown up so old that we have never been to the Far East. The newspapers have been revealing how those barbaric Tatars are destroying the oriental civilization all these years, doesn't it mean that our ancestors came out of there......" Su Fangwei saw that his companions were full of words, and his own courage was also a lot bigger.

"Even if Dad and Uncle Yan care about the Far East, that's not the place for you to go to the table! A sucker! Two fools! After saying a few words, Su Fangqi walked quickly to the door with her skirt, and the moment she turned around, she was so anxious that tears were about to come out.

"What to do? The eldest sister doesn't seem to want to help us? Seeing that her sister didn't let go at all, Su Fangwei was a little deflated.

"It's okay, anyway, this time we are Ivy League exchange students, and we have to stay through this semester, and if we really want to join the army, we will have to wait until the end of the second half of the semester next year. As long as your sister doesn't say it in advance, we still have time to communicate slowly with the adults. ”

Yan Shuming didn't care about it, and he knew that Su Fangqi was just because of his bad feelings, but it was unlikely that he would expose their thoughts to the elders of the two families early.

"Hey, then it's going to take more than half a year, I really want to be free soon......"

Looking at the snowflakes outside the window, Su Fangwei showed a longing look again, as if he couldn't wait to break through the shackles of this family and embrace his own free world. (To be continued......)